Are the Green Parts of tomatoe plants bad for chickens?

[mason123h]

This year I had a lot of volunteer tomatoe plants in my chicken pen and the chickens really seemed to enjoy eating the tomatoes and the plant. Next year I plan to fence off the area where the tomatoes grow until they grow big enough to let the chickens in.
But not long ago I heard that the green part of tomatoe plants may be toxic to chickens. Is this true?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Yes, but mine have eaten ONE plant and survived. Same with potato plants. Both are toxic.

Edited- see my post below...after checking around...

 

[mason123h]

Yeah mine survived too, but I am not sure if it may be hurting them somehow.

 

[scarletbaby]

oh crap tomato plants are toxic?!?!?!?! They love eating the leaves. Luckily i fenced in the garden not too long ago cause they were eating EVERYTHING.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxic1.html
I couldn't find tomato plants on this list. Maybe they are mildly toxic. I have ALWAYS been taught that nobody wants to eat tomato plants- not even animals because they are toxic.

OK, here on this same website- is tomato plants listed just as a general toxic plant:
"TOMATO (Lycospersicon evculentum); vines. suckers: gastrointestinal tract affected by solanine glycoalkaloids."
http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html

So,

how toxic are they to poultry?

 

[krcote]

My chickens have eaten many tomato plants and they are fine...

 

[mason123h]

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Yeah they went nuts over my tomatoe plants.

 

[spartacus_63]

If tomato plants are toxic, mine didn't get that memo. Been eating them their entire lives. I grow them just for the chickens and haven't heard a complaint yet.
They didn't get the potato memo either. I sure am glad my birds are not on the toxic plant mailing list. They love potatoes too.

 

[RIBill]

Tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and a bunch of other things are in the nightshade family. They contain alkalid toxins in varying amounts. Different animals are affected differently and quantity certainly matters. For example, eating the leaves of a tomato plant would kill a cat, but doesn't seem to affect chickens. So, yes the green parts of a tomato plant are posionous but will likely cause no harm to your chickens.

 

[SallyF]

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